Florida based medical cannabis company AltMed, LLC, is applying its unprecedented pharmaceutical, biotech and medical experience to the production of the highest quality cannabis therapies. Already actively harvesting award winning therapies via its Arizona affiliate, AltMed looks forward to bringing that expertise and therapies to Florida patients.AltMed executives believe that after passage of Florida legislation in November, and upon securing any necessary licenses or approvals, AltMed will significantly help fulfill the promise of delivering consistent, high quality medical cannabis treatments to Florida patients. The State has been trying to make the CBD Concentrate formula of medical marijuana available to Florida patients for the last two years. This variety of medical cannabis is relevant to AltMed because the company recently won first and second prize for Best Medical Cannabis at the prestigious Errl Cup in Arizona, and top honors in the CBD Concentrate category for “Kayla’s Care.”
Says Michael Smullen, the CEO, President and co-founder of AltMed, and a former mainstream pharmaceutical executive, “We have spent the last two years bringing our pharmaceutical industry scientific standards to the development and testing of our products to create the purest and most reliable products on the market in Arizona via our affiliate there.” Because of this experience in pharmaceutical research, testing and production, AltMed is uniquely positioned to offer meaningful therapies for Florida patients following the passage of Amendment 2, the Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative. Smullen adds, “Many Florida families are forced to travel out of state, at great expense, to find treatments for their children.”Michael Smullen is no stranger to being the parent of a child with a medical condition. His own daughter Kayla had a seizure at age 2 while sitting in his lap. For the next eight years he and his wife tried drug after drug to control her epileptic seizures, but watched the side effects take an awful toll on their daughter. “She was often lethargic and in a fog, her former personality gone. One drug had such terrible side effects that she exhibited schizophrenic-like behaviors.” Eventually they spoke to other parents of children with epilepsy and learned that many had successfully taken their children off all pharmaceuticals, with good results. They took Kayla off her drugs, held their breath, and watched her get better. Smullen reports that for the last eight years she’s had no seizures and her sparkle is back.
After Smullen retired, their journey with daughter Kayla was in the back of his mind. He still had the desire to find a better solution for children like his daughter Kayla. The experience of viewing the documentaries on marijuana done by CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, led Smullen to do his own research on the medical benefits of marijuana. Eventually he became convinced of the real benefits of medical cannabis, and helped co-found AltMed, LLC.
Smullen absolutely sees a future for medical cannabis. He learned during his own investigations that patients report that medical cannabis helps manage a wide variety of conditions including chronic pain, symptoms associated with cancer, mood disorders, intractable seizures, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, PTSD and many others. Increasingly anecdotal and clinical studies report potential benefit, advances in understanding of the endocannabinoid signaling system, and growing public acceptance for the use of cannabis in carefully selected patients upon the advice of their physicians. Scientists are working to confirm the existence of other cannabinoid receptors and to study the therapeutic potential of over 80 medically significant cannabis compounds. Further, Smullen cited research in medical journals such as JAMA that indicated the 23 states which have approved medical cannabis can document a reduction in the death rates due to accidental overdose (25-30%). A second study found that the prescription rate for opiates and pain pills in those same states was also significantly reduced.
The AltMed President/CEO sees noticeable signs of shifting views in the political landscape of Florida. In advance of the November vote on the Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative, legislators from Florida have traveled to Arizona to tour AltMed’s facility. AltMed has hosted a series of meetings with Florida leaders over the last three months, to familiarize them with the company’s story. “Even those Florida leaders who were
initially opposed to medical cannabis, having toured AltMed’s Florida and Arizona facilities now seem to have shifted their point of view,” Smullen reports. “They can see for themselves we are a science-based, fully integrated company applying pharmaceutical industry precision to everything wedo.”
AltMed applies a more mainstream, serious approach with real legitimacy, and intends to be a bridge to the medical community. The company’s entire methodology is designed to appeal to physicians and medical institutions. For example, the company will be coming out with a product line with delivery methods that include a smoke-free transdermal patch with a standardized dose, a metered dose inhaler, and a variety of topical creams.
Smullen’s intent for AltMed is lofty. “We want to take the medical cannabis industry out of the shadows. I believe AltMed can lead the way in bringing a higher level of professionalism to medical cannabis, and raise the bar in Florida.”
